54 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 
at Scarborough. The lower part of the cliff, from White nab nearly to 
the Spaw, is kept by the carbonaceous grit, and above, in irregular often 
grassy cliffs, lie the carbonaceous shale and thin sandstones : the highest 
point of this inland cliff, opposite Wheatcrofts farm, two hundred and 
seventy-eight feet high, is capped by the cornbrash and Ivelloways rocks. 
The calcareous and irony strata have their long, straight, intersecting 
fissures often lined with double laminae or septa of oxide of iron, between 
which sometimes occurs a white, compact, soft, smooth substance, which 
the Rev. W. V. V ernon ascertained to be a compound of alumina and silica. 
Exactly similar septa, and occasionally the same aluminous substance, occur 
in the superincumbent variable bed of sandstone ; and in addition, this 
bed presents a number of ochraceous belts or zones parallel to the mar- 
gins of its blocks, thus beautifully variegating the blue or white colour 
of the stone. 
It is very interesting to observe, in this walk along the south sands 
of Scarborough, between White nab and the spaw, the peculiar appeal - 
ances of the carbonaceous sandstone. The frequent and remarkable cur- 
vatures of the beds, the unequal intermixture of shale among them, and 
the dispersion of carbonaceous fragments through the mass, leaves no 
doubt of the agitation of the water which left this curious deposit. The 
accumulation of diluvial matter increases continually northward, from 
the high point of Kelloways rock opposite Wheatcrofts, and it occupies 
the whole cliff from the spaw to the bridge. It is, in general, clay filled 
with pebbles of all kinds and magnitudes ; the largest masses are either 
Shap-fell granite, mountain limestone, or basalt. Among the most 
abundant are porphyries ; of which some belong, I think, to the Cum- 
berland mountains, others may, perhaps, be referred to Scotland. I he 
abates, which have been transported along with trap rocks from Scotland, 
or the north of Europe, are comparatively rare. In a few places the 
diluvial matter swept from some particular line of country, seems to be 
exclusively aggregated together. This is well seen behind the spaw, 
where the gravel consists almost entirely of framented lias and moor- 
land sandstones. Here lie many ammonites, pectines, gryphasa2, &c. 
characteristic of the lias formation. 
